Dranish General Election, 3514
A general election was held in Dranland on December 9, 3514. It attracted broad public attention due to its cluttered field of candidates, chaotic alliance-building and fiery campaign. Gwendolyn Hayforth-Breckinridge (RFR) was elected President, while The Good emerged as strongest party in the parliamentary race. Background After a decade of political domination under Presidents Earl Branstead-Smith and Park Jae-yung and yet another re-election in 3510, the centre-right coalition of Encrujicada Democrática, Rally for the Republic and Virtuous Alliance Dranland began to struggle as soon as in the first year of Park's second term in 3511, when various RFR politicians began questioning whether the alliance was still necessary since the communist parties (in opposition to which the alliance had originally been formed) had collectively collapsed. Furthermore, the KDF's parliamentary leadership chaired by Alejandro Xi Marcelino was shifting further to the left and proposed reforms such as the nationalization of the energy sector, which was not well received by the rightist coalition partners. Although RFR Chairman Masuhiro Ozawa continued to defend the coalition, it was quickly revealed that support for the coalition had eroded at the party base when leadership elections were held and Ozawa had to bow out after a disastrous result in Elbian. The remaining contenders, particularly Gwendolyn Hayforth-Breckinridge and Thomas Trelawney, vowed to end the alliance if elected, and when the latter succeeded, the coalition was declared dead, although it would nominally continue to serve the full term to which it was elected. However, in reality this resulted in an early campaign season starting as soon as 3412, two years ahead of the general election. Campaign President Park Jae-yung, seeing that he had lost the support of RFR and ED and his own party had shifted significantly further to the left of his own views, announced that he would not seek a third term, despite continuously high approval ratings. Both the KDF as well as RFR and ED announced that they would field own candidates, with the latter two parties promising to back each other in the event of a runoff excluding one of them. The KDF eventually nominated long-time Minister of Science and Technology Jay Choi, the ED chose former Ulbrach Gov. Ricardo Pérez and the RFR fielded its Chairwoman Gwendolyn Hayforth-Breckinridge. Initially, the elections were deemed relatively predictable, with many expecting a KDF success due to its status as the only left-leaning party. However, soon a large number of new parties was set up, including leftist ones, such as the Democratic Progressive Party, the United Democratic Alliance and the Green Leaf Libertarian Freedom Front among others. On the right, the traditionalist Draddwyr Cynghrair lost its monopoly on conservatism to the Dranish Agrarian League and The Good, who self-described as libertarian but were generally regarded as populists. Leftist camp: DPP and KDF portrayed themselves as safeguards against ideological zealotry, with the former embracing a balance of market-based solutions and social justice, saying that "someone must find a third way, which does not follow the extreme and divisive ideologies of the major parties currently active in Dranland" and the latter banking on the cross-party popularity of Jay Choi as the "least political" of its senior politicians. Due to the ideological closeness of the parties, the DPP finally chose to endorse Jay Choi for President. The more decidedly left-wing parties, including UDA, GLLFF and the Red Freedom Party too sought to appeal to votes as an alternative to the right-wing dominance, albeit more aggressively. GLLFF leader Heather Sant-Crist said that "(...) I'm not one to mince words,and I'll tell you right here,this bullshit center-right government is destroying any hope of a decent future for all of us,and I'll be damned if we don't act now to stop them.We are going to stop them." Although it was initially speculated that KDF, DPP, UDA, GLLFF and RFP might construct a broad leftist alliance to increase its chances of beating the more fragmented rightist camp, this was soon off the table when the KDF would not co-operate with the GLLFF due to it being perceived as too far on the left and when reservations were expressed towards the UDA due to its historical connection to the defunct Radical Liberal Union, which led the opposition against the former centre-right alliance during the Branstead-Smith years and well into President Park's first term. Nonetheless, UDA leader Sarah Goodwinn initially endorsed Choi, saying that "we must make sure that the centre-left takes control over Dranland so that we can set things right and we can only achieve this if we endorse Jay Choi as President." However, this alliance, dubbed Dranish Union for Democracy and Social Justice (DUDSJ) did not exist for very long, as Goodwin soon launched an own presidential bid under the banner of the Alliance of the Left, which included RFP and GLLFF. She argued that this was due to the traditionalist DC (which was also considering becoming part of the DUDSJ) and its closeness to DAL. After DAL and DC in turn rallied behind Gladys Rhys-Evans, Choi was left with the endorsement of his own party and the DPP, and Goodwin became the leading left-wing candidate. Rightist camp: After the collapse of their alliance with the KDF, RFR and ED went separate ways and nominated Gwendolyn Hayforth-Breckinridge and Ricardo Pérez, respectively. Despite their promise to endorse each other in a runoff excluding one of them, their prospects of beating Jay Choi, initially the sole leftist candidate in the race, were deemed mediocre, especially since the opposition traditionalist Draddwyr Cynghrair, nominally a centre-right force, leaned towards endorsing Choi. The RFR ran the most aggressive campaign on the right from the beginning, with Thomas Trelawney serving as its chief campaign officer and taking aim at the DPP early in the race, saying "when they talk about helping hands and fair shots, we can already stop listening, because we all know what it means: higher taxes, more government and more bureaucracy." He also attacked DAL shortly after its refounding, calling them "enemies of progress." The ED kept a low-profile and refrained from excessive attacks on opponents. The rightist field soon became as cluttered as the left, with DAL, Popular Party and The Good emerging as forces to be reckoned with. The DAL sought to attract rural votes, with its leader Jose Manana asking the electorate to "(...) join me on a crusade against big city elitism, the centralist dictatorship of Iglesia Mayor and pure and just complete disdain for those who prefer an agrarian lifestyle by those who think themselves better than us." Even though he was initially sympathetic to allying with some on the left, negative reactions to his agenda led him to rally behind Gladys Rhys-Evans, the DC candidate. The PP was seen as an ally for the RFR from the beginning, and Gwendolyn Hayforth-Breckinridge received her first endorsement from that party. The Good had to fight off allegations of racism and xenophobia against Kyo people issued against them particularly by the KDF, and otherwise campaigned against academia and "welfare parasites." When Hayforth-Breckinridge announced her support for semi-privatization of the army, restricted legalization of paramilitaries and free weapon exports, all of which were long-standing TG demands, Tanist Jeddite Maelic endorsed her for President, despite RFR campaign chief Trelawney criticizing him for his rants against academia. With the endorsements of TG and PP, Hayforth-Breckinridge quickly overtook Pérez and Rhys-Evans as the leading right-wing contender. Opinion Polling (Presidential) Outcome The election results were considered both a massive defeat for the leftist camp and a triumph for the radical right, which, headed by The Good, was subsequently admitted to government by President Hayforth-Breckinridge, who had implied during the campaign that she was open to co-operating with them. The support of TG was also the major factor that led to the skyrocketing poll numbers she enjoyed during the final phase of the campaign. The election results were especially bitter for the two formerly largest coalition parties, ED and KDF, who both lost way over 20% and ended up with drastically reduced parliamentary caucuses. The only former member of the collapsed centre-right alliance that went out of the election relatively unscathed was the RFR, although it also lost 4% regarding the popular vote. Presidential Race Results < Dec 3510 • Dranish Presidential Election, December 3514 (First Round) • Dec 3518 > |- !colspan=2|Parties !Candidate !Votes (No) !Votes (%) !Result |- |style="background:#00008B"| |RFR (endorsed by TG and PP) |Gwendolyn Hayforth-Breckinridge||30,102,958||47.07%||''Runoff'' |- |style="background:#FF0000"| |UDA (endorsed by RFP and GLLFF) |Sarah Goodwin||16,065,971||25.12%||''Runoff'' |- |style="background:#556B2F"| |DC (endorsed by DAL) |Gladys Rhys-Evans||8,823,972||13.80%||out |- |style="background:#C71585"| |KDF (endorsed by DPP) |Jay Choi||4,397,769||6.88%||out |- |style="background:#8B4513"| |ED |Ricardo Pérez||4,339,526||6.79%||out |- !colspan=3|Total!!63,730,196 !Turnout !86.99% |} < Dec 3510 • Dranish Presidential Election, December 3514 (Runoff) • Dec 3518 > |- !colspan=2|Parties !Candidate !Votes (No) !Votes (%) !Result |- |style="background:#00008B"| |RFR (endorsed by TG, PP and ED) |Gwendolyn Hayforth-Breckinridge||32,033,945||56.88%||''Elected'' |- |style="background:#FF0000"| |UDA (endorsed by RFP and GLLFF) |Sarah Goodwin||24,080,411||42.75%|| |- !colspan=3|Total!!56,114,356 |} Category:Elections Category:Elections in Dranland